I bought this on its release last year and it has been on constant play ever since. Easily one of the best albums of last year if not the last 10 years it has Isbell delivering fully on the promise that he has been suggesting for the last 11 years.
In my opinion the best songwriter from at least the last 20 years he keeps writing songs you just know are a class above what else is out there and that will be covered for years to come. If only they get heard!!!
For those of you in Australia and NZ he is touring there this month. Go and see him if you can. Son Sam is.
In my opinion the best songwriter from at least the last 20 years he keeps writing songs you just know are a class above what else is out there and that will be covered for years to come. If only they get heard!!!
For those of you in Australia and NZ he is touring there this month. Go and see him if you can. Son Sam is.
My introduction to him was when he was the new boy in the Drive By Truckers when he joined as third guitarist and also had the ability to foot it with Patterson and Cooley as a songwriter. His songs like Outfit, Decoration Day and Danko/Manuel added a more soulful sound to the band but his star shone bright and short and he was gone after three albums.
Southeastern is his fourth studio album since leaving the Truckers and I have bought each one. While each of the previous albums had a few very strong songs, Dress Blue, Cigarettes and Wine, Alabama Pines and other I have not always felt they were complete packages. Regardless of that I quickly came to consider Isbell as one of the best songwriters ever. Anyone with just two of the songs mentioned above should be recognised more than what he has been. But that is the music business.
This one is the complete package. Isbell has a soulful voice suited to the acoustic setting of many of the songs. The lyrics are, as always well thought out and honest as always they have a semi autographical feel. In this case the parallels of the songs to Isbell's life (giving up drink and getting married) make seem like we may be reading his diary. Always drawn to darker and sometimes more depressing songs my favourites are;
- Elephant; The story of a friends struggle with cancer "There's one thing that's clear to me, no one does with dignity"
- Relatively easy : A reflection that life is not really as bad as we think - and a friends suicide
- Cover me up : A horny love song
- Songs that she sang in the shower : The aftermath of a boozy night
Also worth checking out are last year's Live in Alabama and Here We Rest : An album which going back to I have reassessed and consider almost as good.
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